This study investigates the relation between distributed leadership, the cohesion of the leadership team, participative decision-making, context variables, and the organizational commitment and job satisfaction of teachers and teacher leaders. A questionnaire was administered to teachers and teacher leaders (n=1770) from 46 large secondary schools. Multiple regression analyses and path analyses revealed that the study variables explained significant variance in organizational commitment. The degree of explained variance for job satisfaction was considerably lower compared to organizational commitment. Most striking was that the cohesion of the leadership team and the amount of leadership support was strongly related to organizational commitment, and indirectly to job satisfaction. Decentralization of leadership functions was weakly related to organizational commitment and job satisfaction.

The relation between 1The relation between school leadership from a distributed perspective and teachers" organizational commitment. Examining the source of the leadership function. AbstractPurpose. In this study the relationship between school leadership and teachers" organizational commitment is examined by taking into account a distributed leadership perspective. The relation between teachers" organizational commitment and teachers" were not significantly related to teachers" organizational commitment.Implications. The implications of the findings are that in order to promote teachers" organizational commitment teachers should feel supported by their leadership team and that this leadership team should be characterized by group cohesion, role clarity, and goal orientedness. Recommendations for further research are provided.The relation between 2

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Systematic quantitative research on measuring distributed leadership is scarce. In this study, the Distributed Leadership Inventory (DLI) was developed and evaluated to investigate leadership team characteristics and distribution of leadership functions between formally designed leadership positions in large secondary schools. The DLI was presented to a sample of 2,198 respondents in 46 secondary schools. The input from a first subsample was used to perform exploratory factor analyses; the second subsample was used to verify the factor structure via confirmatory factor analysis. A one-factor structure for the leadership team characteristics (coherent leadership team) and a two-factor structure for the leadership functions (support and supervision) were confirmed. The results of the DLI underpin that leading schools involve multiple individuals, which differs by the type of function.